08 Aug CEREC crowns: What are the benefits?
A dentist will use a crown to restore a tooth that has been severely damaged by decay. Crowns, which are artificial caps that are bonded to the natural tooth, may also be used for purely aesthetic reasons.
If you need to have a crown placed on a damaged tooth, a visit to Dr. Kozlow, a CEREC dentist in Dallas, offers a number of benefits.
The primary advantage of this type of crown is a streamlined placement process. A CEREC dentist can place a crown in a single visit, while traditional crowns take two visits. With traditional crowns, the dentist must take impressions of the tooth, then send those impressions to a dental lab for the crown to be constructed. The patient gets a temporary crown in the interim. When the permanent crown is ready, the patient returns to the office to have it placed.
CEREC crowns, on the other hand, are crafted on-site at the dentist’s office. Rather than wait a few weeks for the permanent crown to arrive, the patient leaves that appointment with a permanent crown in place.
The process begins when the dentist takes images of the tooth using an infrared camera. Those images are then transferred to a computer that has a software program that creates three-dimensional models of the teeth. Those models facilitate the design of the crown. The software then directs the milling machine, also housed on site, how to shape the crown from a block of porcelain. When the crown is ready, it can be placed and adjusted as necessary.
In addition to the timeline benefit, the technique used with CEREC crowns helps to preserve a greater amount of the patient’s natural tooth material. CEREC crowns also eliminate the need for temporary crowns, which can be difficult to maintain even for a short period of time.
The CEREC process can also be used to create fillings, in addition to crowns, so if your dentist has recommended a tooth restoration of some sort, consider CEREC as your solution.